Timberwolves say Derrick Rose was fouled on final shot

LOS ANGELES – The Timberwolves left no ambiguity about it – they thought Derrick was fouled on the Wolves’ final shot of the game.

With four seconds remaining and the Wolves trailing by two, Rose let go of a 3-pointer near the top of the key that missed, leading to a 114-110 win for the Lakers on Wednesday at Staples Center.

The Wolves who spoke after the game all said they thought officials should have called a foul on new Laker Tyson Chandler.

“I want to see that play, it looked like he got hit,” Tom Thibodeau said. “So, I don’t know. I want to take a look at that. From my angle, it looked like he got hit on that play.”

Taj Gibson was more certain.

“He definitely got fouled” Gibson said. “I thought it was on target, but he got nudged. Tyson did hit his hand, but the refs are going to call what they’re going to call.”
Meanwhile, Rose expressed frustration with the non-call.

“For you to ask the question you had to see something. You feel me?” Rose said. “And that's no disrespect to you. They aren't going to give me that call. They haven't been giving me that call. I've just got to get used to it.”

It was only one of two misses for Rose from behind the 3-point line all night. He hit a career-high seven 3-pointers to score 31 points as the Wolves hit a franchise record 20 3-pointers. The Wolves may have lost, but Wednesday was another step in the career resurgence of Rose, who had 50 points against the Jazz last week.

“They're giving me shots that I've been working on the whole summer,” Rose said. “[Thibodeau] believe in me, my teammates believe in me to take those shots.”

Butler update
Jimmy Butler showed little signs of his “general soreness,” playing over 43 minutes in the contest. Butler shot 9 of 18 from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range, including a four-point play that brought the Wolves back in the game when it looked like the Lakers were going to make a run.

Bench issues
It was a rough night an otherwise solid Wolves bench on Wednesday. Combined, the bench shot just 2-for-12 as the starters did most of the heavy lifting. Each bench player was under 13 minutes for the game. The starters, which included Rose, Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Gibson, combined to shoot 39-for-79.